Do you have Camy's e-mail address, by any chance?  Now that you mention it, I have noticed her absence.  It seems to me that the Forum should be open to all comers, at all levels of Twain skowlarship and, after all, every one of us had a starting point.  Besides, as one of my favorite mentors asserts, "We're all bozos on this bus," myself (especially) included.
MZ,KC,MO
-------------- Original message from Ron Owens <[log in to unmask]>: -------------- 


> I so would like Hal Bush's posting be the last word on this whole 
> thing, but I feel the need to reveal one more incident in this whole 
> talk of leaving the Forum. Do you all remember "Camy?" She is the 
> blind woman whose passionate interest in Twain, and her questions, 
> spurred some great discussion from many of you. She has a degree in 
> literature, but she posed many questions because she cannot use search 
> tools as easily as most of us, and she is hugely captivated by Mark 
> Twain. Well, Camy left the forum because of negativity shown to her, 
> particularly by one person on the list who privately said she shouldn't 
> be asking so many questions since this is for collegiate folk. (Most of 
> you would agree this individual is not even in that category.) When 
> considering Hal's 4 cautions, might you all also consider the point of 
> this forum. Besides being a practical tool for researchers etc., can 
> it not also be to further stimulate interest in Twain by answering 
> questions from folk like Camy, the same way you all eagerly do 
> following one of your public lectures, and thereby not give the 
> impression of an Ivory, Ivy Tower Forum? And why shouldn't ordinary, 
> decent civility be an ongoing part of any discourse on the internet as 
> in public? And that should include patiently dealing with questions 
> you've heard before, and not treating such people as interlopers in a 
> private club. Let's follow Hal's advice. The best invention in the 
> world is the delete button. But stay nice. 
> -- Ron, in Elmira